Abstract

Multimode fiber has reemerged as a potentially high performance optical transport media with under exploited capabilities. By examination of the impulse response of MMF with large temporal resolution and large dynamic range, enabled by measurements with sub-picosecond jitter, we quantify the impact on the impulse response and determine the mode coupling. These results together with numerical models enable us to accurately depict the transmission of ultrafast data streams, and thereby quantify system performance increases in the context of adding optical and electronic signal processing to legacy and modem multimode fiber.